the
Uzielli collection there was a somewhat similar work (procured in
France by Boocke), a female head in front-face very deeply cut in an
octagonal amethyst, but quite in the stiff Gothic manner of a metal
seal, and certainly not antique, not even to be referred to the Lower
Empire. It was set in a very heavy ring made like a many-stranded
cable, a fashion much used throughout the fifteenth century, and,
indeed, extremely tasteful. Here, also, both gem and ring are
apparently of the same date, but there is no inscription of any kind to
assist conjecture. Of such heads given in full face more shall be said
when we come to a most interesting specimen of the kind.
A
greater affinity to the " Henry VI," both in material, execution, and
lettering, is the jacinth intaglio now in the Braybrooke collection,
set in a weighty though plain ring, which is said to have been found in
Warwickshire. The device is a triple face combined in one head, seen in
front, but differing altogether in treatment from the three masks thus
united so common in Roman work. Here, indeed, a certain Gothic grimness
pervades the design, and the hair is done in a manner totally different
from the ancient, being represented by thick straight strokes, each
terminating in a drill-hole. The intaglio, highly polished, is deeply
sunk in the stone, and executed with the very greatest precision. On
the beasil is the motto noel twice repeated. This triune face is the
cognisance of the noble Milanese family, the Trivulzi, being the rebus
on the name, " quasi tres vultus." The style of this intaglio, so bold
and forcible, yet full of a Gothic quaintness, has no similarity
whatever to the Roman antique. There can be little doubt that we have
here an actual gem cut at Milan about the year 1450. A supposition
which would account for the use of the black letter in the motto, will
plausibly indicate at the same time the former owner of this valuable
signet. Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, surnamed "the Great," born in 1441,
having been slighted by Ludovico Sforza, became the most active
partisan of his mortal enemy, Charles VIIL, and afterwards of Louis
XII. and Francois I. What, then, more natural than that he, a general
in the French service, should inscribe upon his family signet the
well-known Gallic war-cry, " Noel," i. e., Emanuel, " God be with us," and that in the character still prevailing in his adopted country ?
